Environmentalists Say Bush Broke Vow To Protect Wetlands

February 08, 1990|By The Baltimore Sun

Two federal agencies have signed an agreement environmentalists say is a major retreat from President Bush's pledge to protect the nation's disappearing wetlands.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agencies that regulate building in wetlands, signed a memorandum of agreement late Tuesday night after two delays and an intense struggle within the Bush administration.

While agency officials said publicly the new agreement does not represent a weakening of current wetlands policy, sources inside the agencies who asked not to be identified acknowledged the agreement contains loopholes.

"The White House intervention has produced a policy statement that casts doubt on important and long-standing wetlands protections and calls into question the administration's commitment to `no net loss,' " Kathryn S. Fuller, president of the Conservation Foundation, said in a statement Wednesday.

Environmentalists are concerned beause the agreement does not require developers to first look for ways to avoid the most sensitive areas.

Another concern is a footnote to the agreement that appears to exempt areas where it may not be practical to avoid or minimize the loss of wetlands because "there is a high proportion of land which is wetlands."

The footnote was designed for oil development in the unspoiled Alaskan tundra, where the oil industry argues it would be nearly impossible to mitigate the effects of building in wetlands. The policy says that when developers cannot avoid or minimize the damage, they must build new wetlands at the same rate they are destroyed.

"That is a response to Alaska, but it is drawn so broadly that it could apply to any area with a high proportion of wetlands," James Leape, vice president of the Conservation Foundation, said.

Wetlands are defined as salt water marshes and swampy fresh water forests. They provide food and habitat for wildlife and act as sponges that collect water and filter pollution.